Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Shanghai Trip Day 10 - Dharam Bhrasht

It is a Tuesday, and I am a vegetarian for this only day of the week since childhood. No because, non-veg tastes bad on tuesdays, but because mom wants me to behave like a Maithil Brahmin (the caste which i belong to, due to my birth) and be religious for one day in the week. Somehow, China completely denies the existence of Brahmins, leave aside those of Maithils or Kanyakubj. All that they know is religion is religion..and food is food.. why mix the two. The meals are mostly filled with pork dishes with few options of chicken and beef. There are a few vegetarian dishes, but they are so dull and tasteless, that if I were also born in China, I would have preferred pork to thsoe vegtables. I think India is one of the few countires which knows how to make food delicious without using any meat.

I thought if I should have those stinky vegetable dishes in office lunch or suffice myself with just the salad. Then I thought to myself, that the Gods I obey must be busy in India and might not be watching me in China. It's not their place anyways and they wouldn't have come here to teach vegtarinism to people. Buddha did arrive in the form of his ideas, but i can't see it's effect on the food. I finally settle for some chicken and rice and finally break the sole rule of Brahminism that I had been following. I don't knwo if that has killed my religion or finished my right to call myself a Brahmin. But, I know for sure that if it is the God, and not those useless priests eating on other's money, who makes the decision, he would forgive me. If the gods of chinese people love their people even when they eat pork and beef, why would my god punish me. I have read in my nursery school that God is one and it has to be true. Or else, I am screwed :(

Nevertheless, the day was pretty occupied with work. But I did find sometime to surf the net about the Canon S5IS that I possess. Am thinking of buying some more accessories for it. May be a 4 or 8 GB memory card, a tripod or may be an extra lens or a flashlight.. I haven't decided yet. Was just chekcing out how much do they cost. Well, Thanks to everybody who was involved in getting this camera to me. It is the best thing that I could have owned, ever.

Made some ...no actually a lot of maggie in the evening and ahd it along with a bottle of Minute Maid Pulpy Orange. Saw some news on TV as it is the Election Day in USA. I wish Barrack Obama wins. Anyways, that's all for today, I guess.